By Robert Burns
Associated Press
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. – The weeks-long search of caves in Afghanistan’s Tora Bora region found evidence that Osama bin Laden had been there with Taliban supporters but provided no clue to his current whereabouts, the U.S. war commander said today.
In an Associated Press interview at Central Command headquarters, Gen. Tommy Franks said the search at Tora Bora – once thought a promising path to bin Laden’s capture – was ending.
“We’ll have that pretty well cleared and be out of there in the next day or so,” Franks said.
He also said that in the next day or two the U.S. military would gain custody of one or two Taliban or al-Qaida figures of great interest to the United States. He would not elaborate
He said the Tora Bora search provided evidence that bin Laden and high-level officials of the Taliban militia that supported him for five years had been in the area “at one point or another.”
Indeed, he indicated they had been there relatively recently, but he said he could not confirm reports that bin Laden had slipped away just before Afghan tribal forces and U.S. special operations troops arrived in early December to rout al-Qaida fighters from their final stronghold.
The Army four-star general said he was convinced that he took the right approach in searching the Tora Bora area – choosing not to send large numbers of U.S. ground forces – even though the effort is ending with no clear clues to where bin Laden may be hiding.
Franks said he would not rule out sending larger numbers of ground troops into Afghanistan at some point but intended to stick to his approach of coordinating with local Afghan tribal forces to provide intelligence on the whereabouts of bin Laden and his top lieutenants.
“I’m not interested in acceleration; I’m interested in continuation – focus, to get us where we want to go,” he said in an hour-long interview.
Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.